The car was eliminated indirectly by a multi car pile up that cost our side FOUR 512S Coda Lunga, the biggest disaster that Ferrari ever had at Le Mans.

It happened around 18h, 18h30 a couple of hours after the start when Regazzoni was disturbed by another car (IIRC an Alfa driven by de Adamich or Wisell in another 512) at the very narrow, fast and dangerous original maison blanche section (cancelled after 71 by the entirely new Porsche curves circuit portion elevated above a local road) one of them had oil on his windshield, slowed down abruptly which caused a chain reaction. This caused three 512's to wreck including two Filipinetti cars, one driven entirely by Swedes: Bonnier/Wisell, one by Muller/Parkes and eliminated two factory Ferraris: Bell/Peterson and Regazzoni/Merzario. Derek in the middle of all this managed not to touch or be hit by anyone but buzzed his engine (over revved it) in the panic and it failed minutes later. He confirmed that himself.

A total disaster.

When I visited David Piper in Bagshot UK in 1982 at the ripe old age of 18 he showed me a 512S and then he said let me show you a video, it was the bits of film not used in the movie Le Mans, fantastic footage and in it was in car camera of the 908 the production company used in the real race, the Porsche driving through the aftermath of the carnage...so sad...I have urged David to share that never before seen footage but he can't be bothered.

Here is a rare photo of Ronnie Peterson in the factory 512 braking for Arnage corner I assume. It is the only time he did Le Mans apart I think of some practice in a Corvette the year before.

Meanwhile totally unrelated if not for underlining a really bad day for Maranello, Vaccarella/ Giunti's factory 512 had lasted SEVEN laps before engine failure....Ickx Schetty's factory entry still had a chance to win but then tragically there was the Ickx aquaplaning crash at 1h30 in the morning in which a marshall was killed...

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The car was eliminated indirectly by a multi car pile up that cost our side FOUR 512S Coda Lunga, the biggest disaster that Ferrari ever had at Le Mans.

It happened around 18h, 18h30 a couple of hours after the start when Regazzoni was disturbed by another car (IIRC an Alfa driven by de Adamich or Wisell in another 512) at the very narrow, fast and dangerous original maison blanche section (cancelled after 71 by the entirely new Porsche curves circuit portion elevated above a local road) one of them had oil on his windshield, slowed down abruptly which caused a chain reaction. This caused three 512's to wreck including two Filipinetti cars, one driven entirely by Swedes: Bonnier/Wisell, one by Muller/Parkes and eliminated two factory Ferraris: Bell/Peterson and Regazzoni/Merzario. Derek in the middle of all this managed not to touch or be hit by anyone but buzzed his engine (over revved it) in the panic and it failed minutes later. He confirmed that himself.

A total disaster.

When I visited David Piper in Bagshot UK in 1982 at the ripe old age of 18 he showed me a 512S and then he said let me show you a video, it was the bits of film not used in the movie Le Mans, fantastic footage and in it was in car camera of the 908 the production company used in the real race, the Porsche driving through the aftermath of the carnage...so sad...I have urged David to share that never before seen footage but he can't be bothered.

Here is a rare photo of Ronnie Peterson in the factory 512 braking for Arnage corner I assume. It is the only time he did Le Mans apart I think of some practice in a Corvette the year before.

Meanwhile totally unrelated if not for underlining a really bad day for Maranello, Vaccarella/ Giunti's factory 512 had lasted SEVEN laps before engine failure....Ickx Schetty's factory entry still had a chance to win but then tragically there was the Ickx aquaplaning crash at 1h30 in the morning in which a marshall was killed...

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Janos Wimpffen in Time and Two Seats (Arguably the greatest book on the sport ever written) states drizzle had been falling and it was Wisell that had a greasy windscreen that started the chain reaction by suddenly slowing. You have to wonder why Ferrari team management would have allowed their drivers to race that closely at that point in the race, with what 20+ hours to go. Spontaneous mass team collisions might be rare elsewhere but were common at Le Mans, the Bentleys in the 1920s were the first and there has been many cases since so again you might have thought Ferrari would have taken a more prudent approach to stop four of their cars taking each other out? Perhaps team orders were ignored?

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Janos Wimpffen in Time and Two Seats (Arguably the greatest book on the sport ever written) states drizzle had been falling and it was Wisell that had a greasy windscreen that started the chain reaction by suddenly slowing. You have to wonder why Ferrari team management would have allowed their drivers to race that closely at that point in the race, with what 20+ hours to go. Spontaneous mass team collisions might be rare elsewhere but were common at Le Mans, the Bentleys in the 1920s were the first and there has been many cases since so again you might have thought Ferrari would have taken a more prudent approach to stop four of their cars taking each other out? Perhaps team orders were ignored?

Click to expand...

It calls to mind the Ford debacle in 1967 though they still managed to win the race.

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Janos Wimpffen in Time and Two Seats (Arguably the greatest book on the sport ever written) states drizzle had been falling and it was Wisell that had a greasy windscreen that started the chain reaction by suddenly slowing. You have to wonder why Ferrari team management would have allowed their drivers to race that closely at that point in the race, with what 20+ hours to go. Spontaneous mass team collisions might be rare elsewhere but were common at Le Mans, the Bentleys in the 1920s were the first and there has been many cases since so again you might have thought Ferrari would have taken a more prudent approach to stop four of their cars taking each other out? Perhaps team orders were ignored?

Click to expand...

Hi Timmy, actually there were zero team orders, Derek, for whom I ghostwrote a newsletter column 1995-2000 said so, Ferrari had zero strategy for that race... which really surprised him, remember this was half a century ago...

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Hi Timmy, actually there were zero team orders, Derek, for whom I ghostwrote a newsletter column 1995-2000 said so, Ferrari had zero strategy for that race... which really surprised him, remember this was half a century ago...